[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 51-52]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                BOWL GAME WAGERS SUCCESSFUL FOR FLORIDA

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, as long as we have a lull, on a 
much lighter note I note for my colleagues some of the conversations I 
had prior to the Christmas recess and prior to all the bowl games. It 
so happened Florida had three college teams in bowl games, and so in 
trying to be a good Senator representing my State of Florida, I went to 
the respective Senators from the States with the other three teams.
  Given the fact that the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville was being waged 
between Florida State University and Virginia Tech, I naturally went to 
Senator Warner and Senator Allen and suggested we have a friendly wager 
on the game. What Senator Allen and I agreed to was we would wager a 
crate of Florida oranges and a bushel of Virginia peanuts.
  I am one who absolutely loves peanuts, and I am going to thoroughly 
enjoy those Virginia peanuts that are going to be presented to me by 
Senator Allen next week. We will have an appropriate ceremony and may 
even have the president of Florida State University present for this 
solemn occasion.
  Then I went to the other Nelson in the Senate, our fellow freshman, 
Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and suggested that something as monumental as 
the national championship being played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena was 
certainly worth us determining we would put something of specialty of 
our State on the line, backing up our boast that our team was going to 
be the national champion: The University of Miami versus Nebraska, the 
Hurricanes versus the Cornhuskers. So we determined in a friendly 
conclusion it would be a crate of Florida oranges versus a box of Omaha 
steaks. I am already stoking up my grill.
  For the third bowl game of a Florida college team, the Orange Bowl in 
Miami pitting the University of Florida Gators against the Maryland 
Terrapins, I searched and searched for Senator Mikulski, and I could 
not find her

[[Page 52]]

in the remaining hours of the session. I finally found Senator 
Sarbanes. I explained what I had done in the other bowl game and what 
was on the line in Miami in the Orange Bowl. Senator Sarbanes chose not 
to engage in a friendly wager, of which I have just had the occasion 
today to remind him. He suggested he was wise beyond his years in not 
taking up my challenge.
  Early in our tenure one day I overheard the other Nelson in the 
Senate speaking to a group, in a voice sufficiently loud that he knew I 
could overhear his statement. I will sum up the conversation in this 
spirit of levity. Senator Ben Nelson said to them, within my hearing: 
Oh, you must understand, I am the Nelson in the Senate who comes from 
the State with ``the'' football team.
  I sauntered over and I said: That's right, Ben, you come from 
Nebraska, with the great Nebraska Cornhuskers, which I have great 
respect for, one of the finest football programs in the Nation. But, 
Ben, you must explain to your folks that I am the Nelson in the Senate 
who comes from the State with six professional football teams: the 
Dolphins, the Bucks, the Jaguars, the Gators, the Hurricanes, and the 
Seminoles.
  I think that has now been amply demonstrated by the bowl games we 
just witnessed.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I inquire of the Presiding Officer, are we in morning 
business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I will speak for a few minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa is recognized.

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